Blog Tour & Review - The Heartbeat Hypothesis by Lindsey Frydman

Audra
Madison simply wanted to walk in the shoes of Emily Cavanaugh, a
free-spirited teenager who died too young. After all, Audra wasn’t
supposed to be here.

Thanks
to Emily, Audra has a second chance at life. She’s doing all the
things that seemed impossible just two years ago: Go to college.
Date. Stargaze in the Rocky Mountains. Maybe get a tattoo. You know,
live.

Jake
Cavanaugh, a photographer with mysterious, brooding gray eyes, agrees
to help chronicle her newfound experiences. She makes him laugh, one
of the only people who can these days. As they delve into each
other’s pasts – and secrets – the closer they become.

But
she’s guarded and feels like she can’t trust anyone, including
herself.

And
he’s struggling with the fact that his beloved sister’s heart
beats inside her.

He returned his attention to the phone, this time picking it up,
interest lighting his face. “Oh. Yeah, I took these. There’s so many damn
hashtags, I didn’t even see my name.”

“Well, her whole page, it’s a done-it list.”

His gaze lifted, along with the corners of his lips. “A what?”

“According to her, she never understood why people made lists of the
things they were going to do, so she made a page dedicated to all the things
she did do.”

“Sounds like Emily.”

Now that is a smile. “Well, it’s inspired me to start my own done-it
list, but I want to start by recreating her list.”

Jake set the phone down and slid it across the table. “Recreate it?”

“Yes. Like this one…” I scrolled until I found the photograph. “She
threw glow sticks in a pool and went swimming.” I assumed he remembered, since
he’d been behind the camera. “I’m going to do that, then put it on my own
done-it Tumblr list. Emily only had sixteen done-its, so I plan on redoing all
of them.”

After taking a slow sip of coffee, he leaned forward like he was going
to share a secret. “Can I make a suggestion?”

I winced, instilled with a burning desire to flee from the coffee
shop. There I was, alive and well—with a perfectly functioning heart—and Emily
lay six-feet under, dead and gone. Jake probably thought—

“You should name it something
else,” he said. “Done-its sounds like Cheez-its, and that’s a little weird,
don’t you think? Don’t get me wrong, kudos to my sister for the idea, but uh,
she could’ve been more original with the name.” His smile grew, crooked and
adorable.

Relief washed over me, and I smiled too. “I agree done-it is
unoriginal, but I can’t think of anything better that isn’t also weirder. Can
you?”

With a considerate expression, Jake leaned back in the booth, and
while he thought, I took a sip of my coffee and cream mixture.

“See. Not as easy as it sounds.” I laughed, warming my fingers around
the mug.

Jake chuckled, shaking his head. “Guess I’ll have to get back to you
on that one. But where do I come into this?”

I let go of the ceramic and splayed my hands across the tabletop. “I
want you to photograph my…poorly named list.”

3.5 “His sister’s heart” Stars

ARC provided by the author

Thank you!

I’d been meaning to read
this book for a couple months now, and I’m glad I finally got my hands on it.

What intrigued me most
about The Heartbeat Hypothesis was
the promise of heartbreak—yeah,
promise me angst and you’ll have me. The romance between Audra and Jake was
complicated from the start because of the role Jake’s little sister played in
the story—Audra received Emily’s heart.

When Audra decides to
recreate Emily’s “done-it” list, she asks Jake to help by using his skills as a
photographer to capture those special moments, bringing these two people
together.

I really enjoyed the
premise and the whole idea behind the “done-it” list. Emily was a smart girl.
We often spend too much time worrying about what we haven’t done instead of
just enjoying what we have. I also liked that Audra decided to recreate that and
that she wasn’t afraid of asking for Jake’s help, even though she feared he’d
resent her for taking his sister’s heart.

Having said that, I wish
I could’ve seen more of that element--Emily’s heart playing a big role. I didn’t
feel like Jake cared enough about the fact that Audra had received Emily’s
heart and that “a part” of his sister was alive inside of her. He never really
showed any sign that it mattered, and it felt like a missed opportunity.

Audra and Jake had some
cute moments together, especially when they were recreating the list, but they lacked
that extra factor. They weren’t sweet enough, because the story had a certain
heaviness to it. They weren’t angst enough, because the story never really went
there as far as angst was concerned (see the paragraph above). And while they
had some hot scenes, the heat never picked up enough to leave me breathless. So
I guess in the end I was left wanting more of at least one of those three elements.
Maybe if the author had chosen to make this really angsty (or really sweet, or
really hot) and committed to it, I would’ve been hooked.

Out of the two main
characters, Jake was my favorite. I liked how damaged he was (even though
sometimes he came across as too damaged, especially when it came to the whole
situation with his mother and the fire). I thought he had more layers than
Audra.

Audra was a little
harder to like. I initially felt for her due to her health condition, but I
feared she ended up taking too many steps back as far as character growth was
concerned. Toward the end, she’d made so many bad choices that I wasn’t sure if
I could get behind her. I think she learned her lesson, but I’m not 100% sure
she redeemed herself.

Overall, I liked the story. I thought it had a very strong concept and the writing was solid.

Lindsey
has been writing since she was nine years old, when she discovered
the awesomeness that is Harriet the Spy. Her books always include a
romance, though sometimes there’s an added sci-fi or magical
realism twist. She lives in Columbus, Ohio (where the weather is
never quite right). Her BFA in Photography and Graphic Design has
granted her a wide assortment of creative knowledge that serves as
inspiration (and not much else). When she’s not crafting YA and NA
stories, you'll likely find her spending waaay too much time on
Pinterest, playing a video game, singing show-tunes, or performing in
a burlesque show—because she enjoys giving her introversion a
worthy adversary. (Plus, it's the closest to Broadway she’ll ever
get.) Lindsey was a proud 2016 Pitch Wars Mentee and thoroughly
adores being a part of the wonderful writing community. THE HEARTBEAT
HYPOTHESIS is her debut novel.